Citing financial risks at a time of national and statewide financial uncertainty, Chancellor Divina Grossman said there is the possibility that the lab will be decommissioned and used for other purposes than botulism research.

Keeping the lab operating may cost as much as $1 million a year, a university press statement said.

Dr. Bal Ram Singh, the biophysical chemist who spearheaded the drive to build the center, said he thinks that the cost estimates are exaggerated, and that the center continues to obtain contracts from government and industry.

One of the main sources of contracts has been the Department of Homeland Security along with the Defense Department, since botulism is regarded as a biochemical weapon.

The center has an international advisory board and is only one of two in the nation that conducts this sort of research.

Singh said there was a meeting scheduled to discuss the matter on Thursday afternoon.

UMass spokesman John Hoey said the center has had difficulty with the last two years' inspections by the Centers for Disease Control, mainly having to do with record keeping and tracking of lab activities.

Singh said that the CDC is calling for replacing the "bio-kill" emergency safety system. "That would be a one-time expense of a couple hundred thousand dollars" he said.

The research lab is divided into two sections, a Biosafe Level 2 lab for less risky work, and a much larger BSL-3 lab that must maintain much stricter safety standards handling botulism, which is highly poisonous. It is one step short of the most secure facilities, BSL-4.

Singh said that because of the expense in maintaining BSL-3 standards, the university probably should drop the lab back to Level 2. That would return it to the types of research that was conducted for years in the Violette Building, which the center outgrew.

Singh said the laboratory has had annual contracts in the $750,000 range since it opened.

Now the university will consider whether to decommission the laboratory and dedicate it to research that will generate revenue for the university.

"We are taking a hard look at the investments we have made — and those we can make in the future — to determine whether they will pay off for our students and society," said Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alex Fowler.

"We are undertaking a review to determine whether the cost of sustaining the BSL-3 lab is simply too much to bear right now as federal funding for its work has decreased."